The former judge and attorney general heading the Surrey Police Transition Committee says Mayor Doug McCallum’s timeline for completion is a too ambitious.
McCallum said in a media scrum last week that the the committee members are “all in agreement” and will send it to the minister by Dec.11.
Wally Oppal, who chairs the transition committee responsible for overseeing the move to municipal policing said it won’t be anywhere near that soon.
“I can understand the mayor being impatient about these things and that he wants to get this thing going,” Oppal told Pulse FM in an interview Monday. “But the fact is it’s an enormous task to establish a police force from scratch.”
Oppal said it could take two to three years for any new police force to be put into place.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of work to do to make sure that the safety standards for Surrey are not compromised,” Oppal said.
He said if and when the transition committee agrees, the report would go to the B.C. Director of Policing Brenda Butterworth-Carr. After her review, it would then go to the minister for final approval.
Pulse FM requests for response from the mayor were not immediately granted.